26 February, 2008

HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION CONDEMNS DARKO TRIFUNOVIC

What does the second-largest human rights organization in Europe say about Dr Darko Trifunovic?

Blog Editor's Note: Darko Trifunovic (photo on the left) was the first Secretary in the Foreign Service of Bosnia-Herzegovina at the U.N. (2001), who was fired from the position after for being involved in a document forgery and falsification of BiH citizenship - an identity theft crime. He traveled through many European states with forged documents until his fraud was uncovered and the BiH authorities took away his passport. Currently, he is a member of several leftist apologist organizations on record for denying Srebrenica genocide, and they are: International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), Defense & Foreign Affairs publications, the Global Information System (GIS). He authored the 1st Srebrenica Report (published by the Republika Srpska Government - the Bosnian Serb Government responsible for committing Srebrenica genocide in the first place) in which he claimed that only 100 Bosniaks (Muslims) died in the massacre.

To all participants of the International Police Congress; the EU Justice ministers and Ministers of Foreign Affairs; EU-, US and Serbian institutions in Serbia and the Republic of Srpska; the Bosnian government and Bosnian institutions

Dear Sir/Madam,

Our human rights organisation wishes to draw your attention to the dubious activities of Dr Darko Trifunovic, of the Faculty of Security Studies of the University of Belgrade.

Dr Trifunovic is a self-proclaimed "expert on Islamist terrorism" in the Balkans. Among other things he claims that Islamist terrorism has deep roots in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country now largely at peace with itself once again but which he maintains is the base of what he refers to as the "White Al-Quaeda". These claims have been dismissed as frivolous and unsubstantiated not just by Bosnia's state-level special police agency, the State Information Protection Agency (SIPA), but also by EUFOR (the European Union Forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina) and EUPM (the EU Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina). Not surprisingly Trifunovic was recently obliged to withdraw from the 11th European Police Congress in Berlin (29-30 January 2008) which he had been invited to address.

Dr Trifunovic has been guilty of misleading the public on a number of occasions. In a report published in 2002 he accused the wives and mothers of Srebrenica of filing falsified reports about missing relatives and alleged that "less than 100 Muslim soldiers" had been executed at Srebrenica. These observations flew in the face of the finding by the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), subsequently confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), that the killing of over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys by Serb firing squads at Srebrenica in 1995 constituted an act of genocide. To date 2907 victims have been interred in the cemetery at Potocari and more bodies continue to be found.

Since the start of the Yugoslav wars our international human rights organisation has been campaigning on behalf of the victims of expulsion, genocide and other war crimes. We continue to work closely with the Mothers of Srebrenica and other victims' organisations. We speak for them as well in expressing our outrage at the way international bodies refer to Dr Trifunovic, a man who publicly denies that genocide was perpetrated in Bosnia and undermines efforts to bring about reconciliation and achieve closure for the crimes committed there, as a "security expert".

Our protest is supported by Lord Paddy Ashdown, former High Representative of the international Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has remarked to us "I am appalled that Trifunovic is still able to do so much damage".

Accordingly we urge you to end all contact and co-operation with Dr Trifunovic with immediate effect.

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Srebrenica Genocide is not a matter of anybody's opinion; it's a judicial fact recognized first by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and subsequently by the International Court of Justice.